Gourmet laffer on HBO’s menu

Cabler cooking with Reichl

HBO is teaming with Cary Brokaw, exec producer of “Angels in America” and “Wit,” on a half-hour comedy based on the memoirs of food writer Ruth Reichl.

Brokaw will exec produce. Aaron Geller, exec VP of production at Brokaw’s Avenue Pictures, was instrumental in bringing together all the key pieces.

Writing team Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin (“Carnivale”) will pen the pilot and also exec produce. Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine and the former food critic of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, will co-exec produce.

Project will pick up with Reichl’s second book “Comfort Me With Apples,” which covers her evolution from chef to food writer in addition to the dissolution of her first marriage, a sexual awakening at the start of a second and motherhood at the age of 40.

“There was a point in her life where all the plates were spinning, with the breakdown of her marriage and a number of different men in her life,” Brokaw said. He added that the show — his first for HBO — would be a mix of comedy and drama, striking a tone similar to that of “Sex and the City.”

“It’ll be a romantic comedy, but also beautiful and real in the same way Ruth’s books are.”

“Everyone knows food is the new sex,” cracked Reichl, whose famous disguises from her days as a critic, discussed in her third book “Garlic and Sapphires,” will also make its way into the narrative.

“I actually went to an acting coach for help in creating different characters,” Reichl said. “The whole disguise thing really is so delicious. I don’t know that anyone went to the lengths I did.”

Brokaw has collaborated with HBO on a number of movies including “Normal” and “Path to War.” He most recently produced the feature “Closer.”